solar garden lights

? If its dark, and you need lights, it doesn't seem that solar energy will be available..

Well that goes for solar just about anything.

If you are cruising in the carribean, maybe there is enough to charge the emergency radio batteries, but in the UK in winter? forget it. A couple of watts a square meter if you are lucky.

The ones we use - and all the ones we've had from different sources - don't light other objects - but that's not what they're for. They're for marking routes and hazards such as paths and kerbs.

In our case they mark the position of guy ropes on tents and caravan awnings to prevent people tripping over them and they do an excellent job.

We also use one inside a tent or caravan during the dark hours to give sufficient light for when we have to get up.

Mary

Try a clockwork torch.

These things are rather constrained by the laws of Physics. Unless you have massive photocells you need a *lot* of sunshine (or good daylight at any rate) to charge up the batteries to drive the lamps when it's dark. The better ones manage a bit of light in mid-summer, but this time of year - forget it!!

I don't know whether anyone makes any which use LEDs to produce light. If so, they might have a *bit* more of a chance.

All the solar garden lights I've seen use LEDs.

In message , Roger Mills writes

I've mostly given up on the cheap ones I bought from Homebase several years ago but they use two LEDs each. One was still managing a faint glow for a couple of hours yesterday evening.

Ours all have LEDs.

Mary

Maybe the *all* do in that case? But they're *still* pretty useless - at any rate, ours are!

It depends what you want them for. We're happy with ours and there re no alternatives.

Mary

Dismantled a non working one for a friend. Yes, its a small LED and a Ni Cd cell (probably the cheapest the manufacturer could get !). I didn't particularly investigate the charging configuration but memory says it wasn't anything more than a resistor. So as others have said, in winter you're going to get b****r all anyway and in summer you'll get enough light to show where the lamp is until the cell gets fed up with the crude charging (and discharging!) arrangement and stops working.

Rob

We've been using ours for about five years. LEDs ARE small ...

Mary

plenty do, they are still hopeless. Even those that work moderately for a short while in the lighter months soon fail due to float charging poor quality batteries.

I take it you keep them turned off or in the dark for a fair amount of the time though?

Most NiCds won't survive 1800+ crude charge/discharge cycles - even decent cells on a smart charger will have a job.

We turn them off when we're not using them - of course. Shouldn't ALL electrical equipment be turned off when not being used? It makes all kinds of sense - even for little old me.

? They work from small built-in solar panels!

Mary

Except that when you *do* want them, you won't be able to see them to turn them on 'cos it will be dark!

And if you *do* know where they are in the dark, you don't need them anyway!

The vast majority of "install and forget" garden lighting applications will require they are left on 24/7 however.

I thought it may be worth highlighting that your usage is hence not typical.

Solar panels are not terribly effective at night. Hence they are used to charge a battery which then powers the light when activated by a dusk/dawn sensor.

I've got one still one working after 4 years. maybe it's going to pack up this year

It's very rarely so dark that you can see nothing at all.

It takes a lot of skill to light proof a photographic dark room thoroughly.

I'm sure that last remark must have *some* relevance to solar-powered garden lights - but I can't think what!